Kindness Goes Unpunished

Executive Summary: Another decent entry to the series, but I didn't like it quite as much as the last one. It felt a bit unrealistic at times but enjoyable enough.

Audiobook: I have a hard time disconnecting George Guidall from The Dark Tower/Roland Deschain, but he is a great fit for this series. He doesn't really do voices, but his normal reading voice works well for Walt.

Full Review
I've been enjoying this series as a break from all the sci-fi and fantasy I typically read, but I'm not exactly blown away by the series. One of my main issues has been for a small town there seems to be a lot of murder.

This book “solves” that by moving the setting to Philadelphia, but introduces the problem that he has no jurisdiction as a police officer. I did enjoy the new setting so as long as I didn't think too hard about the

Overall the book was enjoyable enough, but I had to suspend my disbelief at times. I will probably continue on at some point, but likely only if I can snag a deal or borrow the next audiobook from the library.

It's a sure sign that I need to spend more time reading Johnson than watching the show based on this series in that consistently I'm surprised at how funny these books are. Sure Henry Standing Bear's dry wit is there, Vic is brash and inappropriate – amusing enough – but the narration, Walt himself? I chuckled a lot.

So, Walt and Henry (and Dog!) are off to the City of Brotherly Love to visit Walt's daughter, Cady, meet her boyfriend, and for Henry to do something at a museum (just an excuse to see Cady). Oh, and conveniently enough, to meet Vic's family (three police officers, one former police officer, and one attractive mother). After arriving in town, Walt doesn't even get to see Cady before she's brutally attacked and hospitalized.

Naturally, Walt stumbles upon the one person in Philadelphia who's more knowledgeable and interested in Indians than Henry. It's that interest (obsession?) that makes Walt the best man to track down the man who put Cady in the hospital (and other assorted nefarious acts). That's a level of coincidence that you just buy – like Gideon Oliver vacationing somewhere that a set of bones surprisingly shows up; Nero Wolfe needing information from someone who's a sucker for orchids; or that every falsely accused murderers that Andy Carpenter stumbles upon happen to own a cute dog.

There's enough twists, turns – and one seeming unnecessary but entertaining diversion (that turns out to be not so ancillary) – to satisfy any mystery reader. Even out of water, this fish can swim. There's some very interesting things that go on in the character's personal lives that should make things interesting down the road (and that I can't talk about while remaining spoiler free) – enough to make this more than a tale of a father's vengeance.

The first chapter (only one in Wyoming) is great – Walt totally failing to connect with an elementary school classroom, a fun and prototypical Absaroka County shootout, and other things that make up a typical day for Sheriff Longmire on the eve of his trip.

I've enjoyed each of these Longmire books – but I've taken a really casual approach to them, I think one a year so far is my rate. Kindness Goes Unpunished has convinced me that has to end, I'm pretty sure I'll catch up with Johnson before the year is up.